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Croatia
Assorted Travel Stories
In Croatia, a New Riviera Beckons
By STEVE DOUGHERTY
Published: July 17, 2005
"YOU will cry when you see it. Bring tissues. You will need them."
We are finishing a marathon meal at Macondo, a seafood restaurant on a nameless back alley in Hvar. My dinner companion, a local painter, writer and actor named Niksa Barisic, was talking about a historic theater built in 1612 during the Dalmatian Renaissance and still in use half a millennium later. But he could just as well have been describing his feelings for Hvar itself, a mountainous, lavender-scented isle set in the blue, sun-blasted Adriatic Sea off the Dalmatian coast of Croatia.
For centuries, the island has lured visitors and inspired poets. "I know paradise now, I know Hvar," a lyric local saying goes. Now, 10 years after the end of a bloody civil war that devastated much of Croatia, it still struggles as it sees hope for its future in ancient tourist meccas like Hvar, sister islands like Korcula and Mljet, and Dubrovnik - Croatia's, and, arguably, Europe's, most beautiful city.
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Croatia Renewed
Its turbulent years over, the land on the Adriatic is welcoming a new wave of admirers.
By Beverly Beyette, Times Staff Writer
Dubrovnik, Croatia — Over dinner I thumbed through "Dubrovnik in War," a paperback I had bought at a nearby bookstore. Its images were of the devastation from the bloody civil war of 1991-92 — buildings ablaze in the medieval walled city, roofs blown off, rubble-filled streets.
One photograph was of a house in flames on one of the narrow streets off the Stradun, the wide pedestrian way through Dubrovnik's old city, or stari grad. With a start, I realized I was sitting in a restaurant on that street.
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Cliff-Hanger: Would They Ever Leave?
By Daniel and Barbara Zwerdling-Rothschild, Special to The Washington Post
Sunday, June 16, 2002
IT'S OUR FIRST NIGHT IN Croatia. We're sitting on the tiled terrace of our rented house on a cliff near the ancient walled city of Dubrovnik, gazing at islands that stretch like bumpy stepping stones across the Adriatic Sea. We're sipping margaritas made with limes from one of the fruit trees that dot the property, and nibbling clusters of purple and green grapes that we plucked from the trellis over our heads.
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A Rare American Tourist in Croatia
THE Croatian immigration officer looked at my U.S. passport and frowned in puzzlement. He leafed through page by page, holding it up to the light and scrutinizing each visa stamp as if it were a rare butterfly.
For the full article visit New York Times (Requires free registration)
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